Traditionally, when a customer purchases a good or service from a vendor, the vendor provides the customer with a physical receipt as proof of the purchase. Vendors may also email electronic receipts to their customers in lieu of providing their customers with physical receipts. Sharing personal email addresses with vendors may present certain difficulties. For example, providing each vendor with a personal email address is time consuming. Further, providing personal email addresses to vendors presents privacy risks for customers.
In addition to receipts, vendors may provide promotions to a customer that the customer may use for future purchases. The vendor may mail the promotions to the customer or may provide the promotions through a vendor-specific application.